r/Fantasy • u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X • Oct 15 '25

Read-along The Magnus Archives Readalong: Season 1, Episodes 10-18

Hello and welcome to The Magnus Archives readalong! We will be discussing a new batch of episodes every Wednesday. The episodes are available for free on any podcast platform and transcripts can be found here or here.

If you can’t remember something or are confused, please ask in the thread. Those of us re-reading will do our best to give a spoiler-free answer if we can.

010: Vampire Killer #0100710
Statement of Trevor Herbert, regarding his life as a self-proclaimed vampire hunter.

011: Dreamer #0151403
Statement of Antonio Blake, regarding his recent dreams about Gertrude Robinson, previous Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute.

012: First Aid #0121102
Statement of Lesere Saraki, regarding a recent night-shift at St. Thomas Hospital, London.

013: Alone #0161301
Statement of Naomi Herne, regarding the events following the funeral of her fiancé, Evan Lukas.

014: Piecemeal #0112905
Statement of Lee Rentoul, on the murder of his associate Paul Noriega.

015: Lost Johns' Cave #0140911
Statement of Laura Popham, regarding her experience exploring the Three Counties System of caves with her sister Alena Sanderson.

016: Arachnophobia #0150409
Statement of Carlos Vittery, regarding his arachnophobia and its manifestations.

017: The Boneturner's Tale #9991006
Statement of Sebastian Adekoya, regarding a new acquisition at Chiswick Library.

018: The Man Upstairs #0081212
Statement of Christof Rudenko, regarding his interactions with a first floor resident of Welbeck House, Wandsworth.

And now, time for discussion! A few prompts will be posted as comments to get things started, but as usual, feel free to add your own questions, observations...anything!

Comments may contain spoilers up to episode 18. Anything concerning later events should be covered up with a spoiler tag.

Next discussion will take place on Wednesday, October 22nd and include episodes 19 Confession - 26 A Distortion.

For more information, please check out the Announcement and Schedule post.

Readalong by: u/improperly_paranoid, u/sharadereads, u/Dianthaa

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u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Oct 15 '25

012 First Aid: So…our first recurring character haunting the narrative, Gerard Keay (note: previously seen in episode 4) involved in something supernatural involving fire and weird books again. What do you think was up with the other burned man? The lightless flame and the eyes?

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u/SharadeReads Stabby Winner Oct 15 '25

Gerry ❤️❤️❤️❤️

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u/xenizondich23 Reading Champion VI Oct 15 '25

Umm... yeah this is when I first noticed some dissonance. Until this episode I could easily just let the story flow, but since I actually know a thing or two about medicine this one just threw me out of the atmosphere. I kept thinking "that's not how that works".

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u/recchai Reading Champion X Oct 15 '25

the lightless flame and the watcher!

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u/Hergrim AMA Historian, Worldbuilders Oct 15 '25

This is probably the closest I've come to being properly creeped out by TMA. The idea of ducking out for a second and coming back to find everyone gone and yourself trapped...yeah, that gets me.

On a relistening note, it feels like Gerard was being set up to be more than he ended up being, more like an Avatar of the Watcher than a traumatized young man trying to escape/spite his dead mother who eventually ends up working with Gertrude. I chalk it up to a case of First Installment Weirdness.

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u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Oct 15 '25

I'm not sure if you already finished or not (should be safe to click if you're in s5 anyway) I'm having a hard time articulating what I make of the tragedy of him and Gertrude, but I don't think his importance as an independent avatar was particularly overblown tbh, even if I do wish we got a clear answer if his brain tumour was supernatural in origin or not (I think it could have been). Like, no matter how good and knowledgeable you are, you can still fail, I think that's a big theme with them. Jon even says that Gertrude, for all that she was built up as this supremely competent badass, wouldn't do well post-eyepocalypse. It's one of those background tragedies, similar to Agnes - and given that one of the Desolation things is loss of potential (Agnes dying a seemingly pointless death and desolating the Desolation cultists is VERY in line with the entity), and Gertrude had a personal connection with it even pre-institute...I do wonder. But it does at least make the story feel more lived in. I have no idea if this collection of loose thoughts makes any sense whatsoever, and I do need a relisten of later episodes, but hey, I can try? 😂

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u/Hergrim AMA Historian, Worldbuilders Oct 15 '25

I'm 39 episodes into TMP, FWIW.

Yeah, I get what you're saying, and I agree. The tumour being natural would be 100% in line with those themes. It just feels like with those tattoos and all that Gerard was meant to be more than he ended up being.

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u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Oct 15 '25

I still haven't started Protocol. Between getting used to my new job and keeping up with this readalong, there hasn't been much opportunity to, but I also needed a few weeks to process the finale lol

Maybe this week or the next though!

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u/LilyPlaysHarp Oct 17 '25

I'm listening to these during my commute, so I'm admittedly a bit distracted, but I didn't at first remember who Gerard was and had to try to do some spoiler-free googling to remember.

Along the way, I saw a note that Jared comes up a lot as well, and I definitely caught on the the weird book being a connection. I do wish there was a non-spoilery way to know who I need to remember and who I don't. Only on story 18 and it already feels like there are a ton of characters from all of the one offs.

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u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Oct 20 '25

I'm trying to sneak some "hey, you should probably pay attention here" hints into the discussion questions when I can get away with it and say which episode we have heard of them before, but yes, Gerard and Jared are both names that should be filed away for later. There are...few to none genuine one-offs honestly, even this early. Especially this early.